Which of the following is a disadvantage that a firm faces when forming a strategic alliance?
a. risks associated with the fixed costs of a business are more for an alliance than an independent firm.
b. a firm can give away more than it receives when forming an alliance.
c. forming an alliance would hinder the growth of complementary skills and assets.
d. technological standards cannot be established for an industry when alliances exist.

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Mr. smith recently faced a choice between being (a) an economics profes-sor, which pays $60,000/yr, or (b) a safari leader, which pays $50,000/yr. after careful deliberation, smith took the safari job, but it was a close call. "for a dollar more," he said, "i'd have gone the other way."now smith's brother-in-law approaches him with a business proposition. the terms are as follows: - smith must resign his safari job to work full-time in his brother-in-law's business.- smith must give his brother-in-law an interest-free loan of $100,000, which will be repaid in full if and when smith leaves the business. (smith currently has much more than $100,000 in the the business will pay smith a salary of $70,000/yr. he will receive no other payment from the business. the interest rate is 10 percent per year. apart from salary considerations, smith feels that working in the business would be just as enjoyable as being an economics professor. for simplicity, assume there is no uncertainty regarding either smith's salary in the proposed business or the security of his monetary investment in it. should smith join his brother-in-law and, if so, how small would smith's salary from the business have to be to make it not worthwhile for him to join? if not, how large would smith's salary from the business have to be to make it worthwhile for him to join?

Suppose that jim plans to borrow money for an education at texas a& m university. jim will need to borrow $25,000 at the end of each year for the next five years (total=$125,000). jim wishes his parents could pay for his education but they can’t. at least, he qualifies for government loans with a reduced interest rate while he is in school. he has a special arrangement with aggiebank to lend him the money at a subsidized rate of 1% over five years without having to make a payment until the end of the fifth year. however, at the end of the fifth year, jim agrees to pay off the loan by borrowing from longhorn bank. longhorn bank will lend him the money he needs at an annual interest rate of 6%. jim agrees to pay back the longhorn bank with 20 annual payments and the payments will be uniform (equal annual payments including principal and interest). (i) calculate how much money jim has to borrow at the end of 5 years to pay off the loan with aggiebank. a. $121,336 b. $127,525 c. $125,000 d. $102,020 e. none of the above